


it turns out the bioluminescent squirrels are venomous

by LunaLikewell



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drabble, Fainting, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sickfic, animal bites
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-11 22:42:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5644480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunaLikewell/pseuds/LunaLikewell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sirius passes out while on a date. Remus takes care of him.</p><p>Or the one where Sirius refuses to go to the hospital wing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	it turns out the bioluminescent squirrels are venomous

**Author's Note:**

  * For [screwsfallout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/screwsfallout/gifts).



> Gift drabble for the lovely [screwsfallout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/screwsfallout)  
> Beta'd by [Melesmeles]()

It wasn’t often that Sirius awoke blearily, cradled in Remus’s arms in a snowy Hogsmeade alleyway. In fact, Sirius thought muzzily as the speckling receded and Remus’s voice started to make sense again, this was definitely the first time it had happened.

“Did you just make me swoon?” Sirius asked the concerned face above him. “I think you made me swoon.”

Remus huffed and brushed a bit of the falling snow off Sirius’s face. 

“I think you need to go see Madam Pomfrey if a quick kiss is all it takes to knock you out.”

“Oh, no. Nope.” Sirius started to push to his feet, only to remember  _ why _ he didn’t want to see her. “Definitely not.” He stayed sitting and carefully stretched out his leg. “Just some water and sugar and I’ll be good as new.”

Remus eyed him warily before digging out the chocolate that was always hidden somewhere in his robes. He watched Sirius eat it, turned down the piece he offered him - off Remus’s own chocolate bar - and seemed to decide that Sirius would survive. Sirius, for his part, felt much more present, though still a little distant.

“Let’s go home,” he said, once Sirius finished chewing and returned the empty wrapper. “We’ll get you some real food. Did you eat this morning?” Remus hadn’t made it to Great Hall for breakfast, still in the process of convincing Madam Pomfrey that he was fine to go to Hogsmeade, despite having suffered through the full moon the night before. She had reluctantly admitted that his post-moon recovery had markedly improved in the last year. He had been discharged just in time for him to meet Sirius for their third official date.

"Not really," Sirius admitted, and Remus sighed and got an arm under his shoulders.

Sirius cast a brief, longing look at the snow-covered town as they made their way slowly back to the castle, before remembering that the Hogsmeade weekend meant that they’d have the dormitory to themselves. As long as he didn’t pass out again, and managed to keep his pants on until his leg healed, things would be just fine. More than fine.

He didn’t realize that things were drifting out of focus again until Remus was pushing him down to sit on the stairs in the castle entryway. “Okay,” he was saying, though it sounded like he was speaking through a muggle radio, “That’s it, we’re going to the hospital wing.”

Sirius shook his head, hoping that the movement would remove some of the encroaching darkness as well as convey his displeasure at the thought of going to the hospital wing. “No, no, can’t do that.”

“Why?” Remus asked, but Sirius shook his head. “Sirius, I will pick you up and carry you there myself, so help me.”

Sirius shook his head again, this time clearing his vision completely. “I’ll tell you once we get back to the common room, but not here.”

At the pinched expression on his boyfriend’s face, Sirius added, “Please?”

Remus nodded, then turned around. “I’m still carrying you,” he said over his shoulder when Sirius didn’t move. “Piggyback to Gryffindor, or a fireman’s carry to the hospital wing. It’s your choice.”

It was a long, jolting trip up to Gryffindor tower, and by the time they got there things were getting hazy again. Sirius banged his shin on their way through the portrait hole, and barely managed to hold back a whimper. Remus zeroed in on it immediately, and eased Sirius into a chair. 

"Let me see."

Sirius tried to protest, but wasn't able to scrape the words together before Remus was pushing his robes and trouser leg up out of the way.

"You idiot," Remus says, resting his fingers next to the raised blue bite mark. "You could have just said."

Sirius winced at the pressure, but then sagged into Remus's touch. 

"It was so stupid, just one of those glowing squirrels. I was chasing it and it just-" he flapped a hand. "Pomfrey would recognize it as being from the Forbidden Forest, and James would laugh, and you-"

"I'm not laughing at you."

"I just didn't want you to worry more, or think that it was proof we shouldn't keep running with you on the full moon."

Remus sighed, "I always worry about you, but that hasn’t stopped you yet. And if I’m being quite honest with myself, I’m glad it hasn’t.” Remus prodded at an area just to the left of the bite mark, which Sirius was surprised, and not a little alarmed, to find produced no feeling at all. Remus nodded, as if satisfied.

“Well the good news I know what bit you, and that I've been bitten by those things before-"

"Is that good news, though?"

"-and the better news is that I know the anti-venom charm."

Sirius considered the fact the he had been fainting because of venomous, bioluminescent squirrels, then noticed that Remus looked like there was something more he didn’t quite want to say. "Bad news?" he prompted.

Remus winced. "The bad news is that it gets worse before it gets better."

Sirius eyed the nervous set of Remus's mouth. "How much worse?"

"Remember that flu I had third year?"

Sirius did. Remus had been completely out of it for two days. It was odd, because it hadn’t even been flu season, and -- "Oh."

“Unfortunately, yes.”

The charm was quick, and felt like cool water and relief. Sirius hadn't realized just how much the bite was hurting until it abruptly wasn't anymore. He smiled up at Remus who was, once again, seeming to grow farther away.

"I think I'm fainting again," he said, noticing how his voice seemed very small, almost as small as Remus's voice saying, "Oh, yes, that's normal."   


\---

The next time he came around, he was in his own bed. The snow was falling past the windows, not on his face, and Remus's voice was calm and measured instead of somewhat panicked.

He let the sound wash over him for a little while before he really started listening, and then he cracked an eye to say, "Moony, are you reading me a textbook?" It came out as a bit of a croak, and Remus flushed as he lifted a glass from the bedside and helped Sirius drink. 

"I was going to read you something more interesting, but you didn't seem to care one way or another, and I have studying to do."

While he was out, Sirius seemed to have developed a bone-deep soreness, and the chills. He resettled into the pillows with a groan. "This is better than the fainting?" He asked as Remus produced a damp cloth.

Remus concentrated on wiping down Sirius's forehead for a while before he replied. There was a deep frown lingering around his mouth. "Sirius, the venom from those squirrels is serious. I was doing some reading while you were out. I should have taken you to Madam Pomfrey anyway."   
  
"I'm glad you didn't." Sirius said it to the ceiling, but it was directed at Remus.

"Why? Getting in trouble, getting a couple detentions never deterred you before."

Sirius swallowed and glanced at Remus and then away. "Last time I went to the hospital wing for something like this, McGonagall said that next time she'd have to send an owl to my mother. I can't-" Remus took Sirius's hand and squeezed it. Sirius took a breath to compose himself. "I don't want to deal with that." 

They were quiet for a moment while Remus wrung out the cloth and rewet it. "Thank you for telling me," he said, and Sirius batted weakly at his hand. 

"Thank you for maybe saving my life."

Remus leaned down to kiss him, and Sirius couldn't help but lean back up, sore muscles be damned. When they broke apart Sirius said, a little ruefully, "I'm sorry I passed out on our date."

"It's okay," Remus said, kissing him again, "There'll be others."

A huge yawn overcame Sirius's smile. "I think I'm going to fall asleep now," he mumbled when it passed.

Remus smiled. "Go ahead,” he said, gently brushing Sirius’s hair from his forehead, “I'll be here when you wake up."


End file.
